Melancholy is a severe form of depression, and consists of a mental state of deep sadness and hopelessness.
Since melancholy is a form of depression, doctors now refer to it as melancholic depression and it is considered a separate illness from simple depression, the mental health website notes. .
Thus, melancholic depression is characterized by affective, cognitive, psychomotor and vegetative symptoms that include psychomotor difficulty, insomnia, weight loss, agitation, feelings of guilt and inability to feel sexual pleasure or achieve an orgasm.
What are the symptoms of melancholy?
They tend to be the same as depression, only more severe; these are some:
- Feeling of deep hopelessness and emptiness
- That feeling of depression is felt more in the mornings
- Wake up a couple of hours before the alarm goes off, in the morning
- Difficulty moving with the same vigor as usual, or experiencing irregular movements
- Weightloss
- Feelings of guilt for no apparent reason
These are the causes of melancholic depression
Medicine Net doctors do not have a conclusive answer as to what causes the disorder and argue that The symptoms appear suddenly.
Unlike depression, melancholy does not disappear during times of celebration, reunion or rejoicing. The person does not experience happiness, not even for brief moments.
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The closest thing to the truth found by specialists is that the Causes of melancholy are associated with biological changes in the brainand a certain proclivity to suffer from this illness is observed in very elderly people, patients hospitalized for long periods and mentally unstable people.
Treatment for melancholy
The portal notes that Melancholy is a major global public health problem and one of the main causes of disability.
He treatmentsay the specialists on the website, from the first episode of the disease It can take between 2 and 3 years and is never less than 9 months and there are a number of patients, between 15% and 45%, who do not respond to therapy.
Regarding the formulation and psychiatric treatment of melancholy, the portal notes that due to its severity (which may include suicide risk), This disorder usually requires drugs for treatment.
For this reason, they mention medications such as tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
In addition to drugs, it is recommended undergo psychotherapyas a complementary treatment to drugs, so that the patient learns to face their negative thoughts and feelings of guilt.
Specialists say that in cases of extreme severity, therapy based on electric shocks is still used.
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